Can You Hear Me Now? Print
Wednesday, April 07 2010

A Florida woman had her cell phone returned after an appeal court overturned a lower court's ruling that her cell phone be destroyed and she be held in contempt after it rang in a courtroom.
 
Michelle McRoy was in an Orange County Circuit courtroom when her cell phone began to ring loudly.  McRoy admitted that she failed to check the cell phone's ring status after loaning it to her sister.  Angered by her oversight, the judge stopped proceedings, tossed the phone into a garbage can and ordered McRoy held in contempt of court for failing to silence her cell phone.  
 
Upon appeal, the Fifth District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach concluded that, while annoying, McRoy's actions did not meet the necessary legal standards for contempt and overturned the lower court's ruling.
 
—Source: Pensacola News Journal